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Not all penguins live in the Artic. Some prefer
a bit of radiant heat, too.

Radiantly heated nests help an endangered penguin species breed at a Seattle zoo. Photo: Ric Brewer

Penguins? Radiant heat? Don’t they like things
ice-cold?

Not the 10 pairs of male and female penguins you’ll see at the new
17,000-square-foot exhibit that just opened last month at the Woodland Park Zoo
in Seattle.

These are Humboldt penguins to be precise, native to the relatively warm and
certainly snow-free coastline of Peru. The penguin’s new home features
shoreline cliffs, nesting burrows, a beach and two pools, one inside with 6,000
gallons of water and the main one outside with 50,000 gallons.

For heating and cooling the water as well as the birds’ nests - a vital part
since the zoo wants the endangered species to multiply - the zoo turned to Gerard
Maloney, owner of Earthheat, Duvall, Wash.

Maloney originally started his business as Cherry Valley Heating & Cooling,
but started specializing in tapping into geothermal energy for much of his
radiant heating work 10 years ago.

“After being introduced to geothermal technology and realizing that we could
combine the comforts of radiant heating with the ultra-efficiency of a
geothermal heat pump, I was sold,” he explains.

Humboldt penguins like their water between 50-60 degrees F. Considering
Seattle’s climate, that means the water needs to be cooler in the summer and
warmer in the winter. But geothermal makes that easier.

“The ground water alone is 52 degrees,” Maloney explains. The geothermal design
for the pools operates on two stages with two compressors, one at a time, with
a large tankless gas water heater as a third stage. Thanks to the temperate
ground water, however, Maloney doesn’t think the system will ever need the
third stage.

The water-to-water heat pump also will cool the pool water on a reverse cycle
in the event the water temperature rises above
the desired temperature. This also operates in two stages.

The radiant zone snakes throughout the nests and the indoor pool room,
remaining at an indoor air temperature of 65 degrees F. Photo:
Gerard Maloney/Earthheat Inc.

Humboldts come ashore to nest and Gerard
installed radiant tubing throughout the exhibits “cliffs” to keep things cozy.
No doubt smelly, too, since the penguins prefer to bed down in guano, or poop
by any other name. The monogamous duos can breed at any time of the year.
Females typically lay one or two eggs, and it takes about 40 days for an egg to
hatch.

The radiant zone snakes throughout the nests and the indoor pool room, remaining
at an indoor air temperature of 65 degrees F.

Zoo officials believe the geothermal heating and cooling systems will save
about 75 million Btus of energy annually.

“Ongoing operation and maintenance costs are amplified for nonprofit societies
like the zoo,” says project engineer Rick Grove, P.E., CDi
Engineers, Lynnwood, Wash. “Animal welfare comes first and the new geothermal
system not only keeps the animals happy, it provides the lowest cost for
heating and cooling the water versus all the systems available for the project.”
(While we chose not to write about it, an innovative water filtration system
for the exhibit will also save the zoo millions of gallons of water each year,
too.)

Maloney’s radiant system also cools down the nest and ground areas for the
penguins in the summer. “Radiant cooling is not done often since floors can
condense and the moisture can be a slipping hazard,” Grove adds. “For this
project, the condensation on the radiantly cooled floors is not an issue.”
However, the floors are coated with a nonslip surface and receive regular wash
downs for cleanliness.

Grove also mentioned another aspect of radiant heating and cooling we hadn’t
thought much about. “Animals and visitors don’t like mechanical noise,” he
says. “Other systems such as cooling towers and furnaces distract from the
experience of the visitors and social interactions of the penguins.”

While an interesting project, Maloney is certainly doing a lot of business
these days for those other kinds of “zoos” we call homes and offices. He
installed 75 systems last year during the run-up in energy costs. When he first
started specializing in geothermal, he was lucky to install 10 his first year
out.

Maloney estimates the cost of running a geothermal system in a
3,000-square-foot home would be about $700 annually, compared with a natural
gas system costing as much as $3,000 a year.

Obviously, there’s always a catch in saving energy. Maloney says his cost for
residential or commercial geothermal systems are usually 50 percent higher than
traditional systems running off fossil fuel. While energy prices aren’t as high
as they were last year, he still thinks geothermal can pay for itself in less
than six years for most homeowners.

Maloney says one big obstacle to building his business is that most people
simply don’t even know what a geothermal system is. But he says the recent
publicity in solar energy has helped him explain the benefits of geothermal to
the public.

“The earth is the biggest solar collector we know,” he adds. “It’s a learning
curve. More than anything, geothermal is about thinking out of the box.”

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Check out November 2018 issue of Plumbing & Mechanical , featuring our Cargo Vans model year 2019, a vehicle build for your business, a few guidelines to installing a tankless water heater , and much more.